An Eye for a Life
by Vanilla Owns Chocolate
Summary: One day, when Oliver was four years old, he woke up in a hospital room. That wasn't the strangest thing that he noticed, though.


Oliver couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong at first.

...Well, aside from the fact that he was laying on a bed in a white room while machines beeped incessantly in his ear. No, while that was certainly strange enough, that definitely wasn't what was bothering him. It was the way everything _looked._

Nothing seemed particularly out-of-place for a hospital. However, as he blinked wearily to clear his vision, he felt the warning sirens in his head scream at him that there was something most decidedly wrong about the way he was looking at things. Sure, it was blurry, but that wasn't the problem. Something else wasn't right, but he didn't know what.

His head ached dully, as if the holes in his memories were being forcefully plugged up by the throbbing pain that he felt everywhere else. He groaned as he tried to stretch, but doing so only caused him to wince and remain uncomfortably still.

"You're awake!" a voice near his bedside cried in surprise. He weakly turned his gaze towards the source, though he couldn't help but be reminded of the burning feeling that there was still something odd about his vision. There, standing next to him, were the warm, familiar faces of his father and his nine-year-old brother Yohio ( _half_ brother, he reminded himself weakly. Hio hated it when he used the incorrect terminology). He realized with hazy recognition that it was he who had spoken to him.

"H-hio…" Oliver whispered, his throat terribly dry. "What...what happened?"

His question was ignored as he was wrapped in a tearful hug by both of his relatives. Another semi-coherent thought passed through his head: _Hio's never hugged me before._

Oliver wished that he could cry with them, but he didn't know what was going on. Why was he in the hospital? What was wrong with his eyesight? In fact, the more he looked around, the more he began to notice...

"Where's Mummy?" he croaked amidst the sobs. While his memory was still hazy, he could vaguely remember his mother being with him before he woke up. The cries grew somewhat quieter from Hio's side, but his father began shaking and buried his face in his own hands in an attempt to hide his tears. Oliver felt a twinge of fear stab through his body. Was Mummy okay? Was she really hurt? Was she sick?

Yohio fidgeted uncomfortably, his eyes still wet and red. He sniffled and gave him an uncertain look. "Oliver...do you remember anything?"

Once again, the younger blond strained his brain to try to recall anything recent. He remembered his mother, undoubtedly. He remembered a loud noise, then jolting forward. He remembered everything going white, then pain, then blackness. That was it.

"S-sort of," he stuttered, finally starting to get a handle on his voice once again. "I know Mummy was there. It hurt a lot…"

Hio looked uneasy and rubbed his arm nervously. Their father took several deep breaths before giving Oliver a solemn gaze. "Oliver...your mother is dead. You were in a car crash."

And like that, everything seemed to click. The loud noise. The sudden forceful movement. The unbearable pain.

His mother.

"Wh...what?" was all he could say in response. He felt his breath leave him as he struggled to comprehend this new information. The woman who gave birth to him, the woman who helped his father learn how to love again after the death of his first wife, the woman who was always kind and caring to Yohio even though he didn't like her, was dead. Meanwhile, he was still alive, and his biggest concern was the fact that he felt as if he couldn't see properly.

He felt like the most awful, selfish person in the world.

He snapped. He began to cry loudly, wailing as he clenched the sheets tightly. "No!" he sobbed, tears streaking down his face. "M-mummy! I want my Mummy!"

Hio began crying again as well, wrapping Oliver in another hug. Their father was avoiding eye contact with them out of grief, not wanting his children to see him cry any longer.

Oliver was now hugging Yohio back, grateful that his brother ( _half_ brother) was finally being nice to him. Ever since he was born, Hio had always seemed to resent him. Now, they seemed to be united by sadness.

"I'm so sorry," the older boy whispered in a shaky voice. "I'm so, so sorry."

Oliver's senses were gradually starting to come back, and he managed to splutter out a, "Wh-why are you sorry?"

"Because I wasn't a good brother! I was always so mean to you!" said Hio, looking away in shame. "What if you didn't make it?! Then what would that make me?! A bad brother _and_ a bad step-son!"

"Hio, you're not a bad brother!" Oliver protested tearfully. " _I'm_ the bad brother! If I hadn't been born...if I hadn't-"

"Both of you, stop this right now!" their father interjected. "I can't believe you two are fighting when my wife is dead! Neither of you are bad brothers, understand?!"

All went silent. As Oliver reached up to wipe away his tears, he suddenly became acutely aware of something that his sleepy state of mind from before had prevented him from noticing: something was covering his left eye.

He froze in shock. Sure enough, when he reached his hand up, he was horrified to discover that not only was there thick gauze covering his eye, but the entire left side of his face as well. Yohio and his father looked worried.

"Oliver," his father said cautiously, "please, don't do that…"

"What do I look like?" Oliver responded shakily. "I want a mirror! What do I look like?!"

"Oliver, listen-"

"Here you go." Yohio said stoically as he handed his brother a small pocket mirror. The younger boy immediately took it.

"Where did you get that?!" their father asked angrily. Hio shrugged.

"I found it in...your wife's purse when they gave us back her stuff from the crash. He deserves to know what happened to him."

Oliver's hands began to tremble as he looked at his reflection. Half of his face was shielded by the white cloth, wrapped meticulously over any potential scars or gashes that might have been there. Cautiously, he reached a hand up yet again to touch the bandages.

"Oliver, I know what you're thinking. Don't do it." his father said sternly, but the words were lost to him as he tugged on one of the strips. "Oliver. Your brother wasn't thinking right when he gave you that. Don't worry, just give me the mirror and stop fooling around."

Yohio said nothing as his father gave him a furious look. He just watched as his brother began to pull away at the layers of bandages. It took a lot of force, but they hadn't been changed in a while, and his burning curiosity and anger fueled his strength.

"Oliver, listen to me! Give me that mirror back right now! Stop playing with your gauze!"

But it was too late. As soon as Oliver peeled away one of the layers, he gasped in horror. He now realized why he wasn't able to see properly.

He began breathing heavily and dropped the mirror as his dad began yelling for a doctor, a nurse, anybody to come and replace the bandages on his son's face. Oliver felt his consciousness threaten to leave him again as his mind raced with the image that he just saw.

The last thing that went through his head before he passed out again was: _My eye is gone._


End file.
